Late last year, I
took a road trip with my partner from our home in New Orleans, Louisiana
to Orlando, Florida and as we drove by town after town, we got to
talking about the potential effects self-driving vehicle technology
would have not only on truckers themselves, but on all the local
economies dependent on trucker salaries. Once one starts wondering about
this kind of one-two punch to America’s gut, one sees the prospects
aren’t pretty.
We are facing the decimation of entire small town economies, a disruption the likes of which we haven’t seen since the construction of the interstate highway system itself bypassed entire towns. If you think this may be a bit of hyperbole… let me back up a bit and start with this:
Source: NPR
This is a map of the most common job in each US state in 2014.
It
should be clear at a glance just how dependent the American economy is
on truck drivers.
According to the American Trucker Association, there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the US, and an additional 5.2 million people employed within the truck-driving industry who don’t drive the trucks. That’s 8.7 million trucking-related jobs.
According to the American Trucker Association, there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the US, and an additional 5.2 million people employed within the truck-driving industry who don’t drive the trucks. That’s 8.7 million trucking-related jobs.
More @ Medium
First, I doubt you'll have to worry about losing a lot of drivers jobs because that technology has to be expensive.
ReplyDeleteAnd just because it can haul a load down an interstate doesn't mean that it can back up to a dock.
Don't think there will be much of a change in my life time.
DeleteMy farm tractors auto steer. Believe me, there is a near infinite level of variables going from field to road. I predict total global economic meltdown, world war 12 and the rapture will occur long before we see driverless semis.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I am wrong a lot.
You are probably correct.
DeleteFirst time one of these things plows into a school bus or a church van the company that made it will be bankrupt. The technology is simply not up to the necessary
ReplyDeletecapabilities for a truly driverless vehicle. And won't be for a long time.
I believe 20 years was mentioned.
DeleteTo be truly 'self driving' will require artificial intelligence. It would be virtually impossible to write a program and create algorithms that can be programmed into a system, no matter how complex the system, that could anticipate all possible problems and contingencies and react properly. It will require a truly thinking machine to enable such vehicles to actually perform safely.
DeleteOnce we have that level of technology we may not be worrying about the safety of self driving vehicles.....we may be too busy fighting SkyNet.
:) Thanks.
DeleteBetween 2000 - 2010, these US lost 55,000 factories and 5-6 million manf. jobs.
ReplyDeleteIn twenty yrs what will the population be and the number of truckers at that time
who will lose out. The jobs the average Joe can do are being eliminated.
The loss of the manf. jobs hurt the people and still does. Based on their soulless
reptilian natures, our demise is eminent. Soylent Green lines.
Back to the farm and we should be preparing for such. Some farmers who lived off the land in the 30's were little impacted by the Great Depression.
DeleteThat's what my mother said. 98 yrs. old. Said they were just poor, but they ate good, living on a farm.
DeleteI hope you're writing everything down that she knows. Invaluable. Thanks.
DeleteThere probably won't even be any open land by this time. They'll do like they do to
ReplyDeletethe bears here in NC when the population expands d/t the bear's land being developed.
Open season. Probably a false flag for us though I won't be around. I would love
to see the day when they get attacked while hiding in their protected mansions.
All we wish is to be left alone as we did in '61, but commies can't stand not controlling the people.
Delete